Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 1, Purposes and Scope of LA FOIP. Updated 7 March 2023. 11 considered a collection unless the local authority keeps or uses the information.20 In other words, if the local authority keeps it, it should ensure it has authority to do so under section 24 of LA FOIP. If not, return it or safely destroy it. In addition, keeping it means the local authority has possession and/or control of the personal information. If a local authority does not have specific authority to collect unsolicited personal information and the information is not necessary for an operating program or activity of the local authority, it is not an authorized collection. The local authority should adopt a policy of either returning the unsolicited information or destroying it in accordance with a transitory records schedule.21 Personal emails of employees22 When a local authority employee uses their workplace email address to send and receive personal emails completely unrelated to their work, those emails are not subject to disclosure to members of the public who request them under LA FOIP. The terms “possession” and “control” do not include private communications of employees unrelated to local authority business. It can be confidently predicted that any local authority employee who works in an office setting will have stored, somewhere in that office, documents that have nothing whatsoever to do with their job, but which are purely personal in nature. Such documents can range from the most intimately personal documents (such as medical records) to the most mundane (such as a list of household chores). It cannot be suggested that employees of a local authority governed by LA FOIP are themselves subject to that legislation in respect of any piece of personal material they happen to have in their offices at any given time. That would clearly not be contemplated as being within the intent and purpose of LA FOIP.23 20 Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, Information, Privacy and Archives, Freedom of Ontario Information and Protection of Privacy Manual at p. 140. Available at https://files.ontario.ca/books/foi_privacy_manual_-_final-v02-2018-03-08-en-accessible.pdf. Accessed December 1, 2022. See also SK OIPC Investigation Reports F-2012-002 at [61] and F-2012-004 at [77]. 21 Service Alberta, FOIP Guidelines and Practices: 2009 Edition, Chapter 7, p. 239. See also SK OIPC Investigation Report F-2012-002 at [60]. 22 The issue of possession & control can come up when it involves the personal emails or records of employees. In addition to the references noted in this section below, see also Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union v Unifor Local 481, 2015 CanLII 28482 (SK LA). 23 See City of Ottawa v. Ontario, 2010 ONSC 6835 (CanLII) at [37]. See also SK OIPC Review Report F2014-007.
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